Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections - BBC News BBC News Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections 26 May 2014 Close share panel Media captionAnti-immigration parties hostile to the EU have done well Eurosceptic and far-right parties have seized ground in elections to the European parliament, in what France's PM called a "political earthquake". UK Independence Party and French National Front both performed strongly. The three big centrist blocs all lost seats, though still hold the majority. The outcome means a greater say for those who want to cut back the EU's powers, or abolish it completely. UK PM David Cameron said the public was "disillusioned" with the EU. Mr Cameron said their message was "received and understood". Vote 2014 LIVE: Full coverage of results French President Francois Hollande has called an urgent meeting of his cabinet, as Prime Minister Manuel Valls promised tax cuts a day after the results which he described as "a shock, an earthquake". Chancellor Angela Merkel - whose party topped the poll in Germany - described the far right victories as "remarkable and regrettable" and said the best response was to boost economic growth and jobs.

Jose Manuel Barroso, outgoing president of the European Commission, stressed that the pro-EU blocs still had "a very solid and workable majority". He said a "truly democratic debate" was needed to address the concerns of those who did not vote, or "voted in protest". Image copyright AFP Highlights Italy In final results, centre-left PM Matteo Renzi (above) scores strong 40%, fending off ex-comic Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment Five Star with 21%, and ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia with 17% (Based on exit polls/provisional results) France National Front storm to victory - 25%, 24 seats; Centre-right UMP 21%; President Hollande's Socialists a poor third with 14% - lowest ever EP score Britain Eurosceptic UKIP in first place, with 27%, Conservatives on 24% and Labour about 25%, Greens beating Lib Dems Germany Angela Merkel wins another election - 35% for her Christian Union, 27% for the centre-left SPD.

Eurosceptic AfD score strong 7% Greece Partial results show far-left Syriza on 26%, PM Antonis Samaras' New Democracy on 23%. Far-right Golden Dawn set to get three MEPs, with 9%. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has asked the Greek president to call early national elections. EU supporters will be pleased that election turnout was slightly higher, at 43.1%, according to provisional European Parliament figures. The revolt had been a long time brewing and the battle lines are drawn By Gavin HewittEurope editor That would be the first time turnout had not fallen since the previous election - but would only be an improvement of 0.1%. "The people have spoken loud and clear," a triumphant Marine Le Pen told cheering supporters at National Front (FN) party headquarters in Paris. "They no longer want to be led by those outside our borders, by EU commissioners and technocrats who are unelected. They want to be protected from globalisation and take back the reins of their destiny." Provisional results suggested the FN could win 25 European Parliament seats - a stunning increase on its three in 2009.

Matthew Price, BBC News, Brussels Despite the huge gains for anti-EU parties and those that wish to reduce the power of the EU, it is unlikely that the European Parliament will adopt a fundamentally different approach. The main centre-right and left groupings still hold the majority of seats between them. Add in the Liberals and the Greens and parliament is overwhelmingly pro-EU. In that sense if the main groups in the parliament choose to ignore those who didn't vote for them last night, they can. National politicians however, can't afford to ignore them. That's where this election is likely to really shake things up. This will have an impact not just on domestic politics, but on the national leaders when they meet in Brussels at the European Council - where their job is to shape the direction of the EU. Protest parties will force EU rethink Hard-left gains Across the board, the centre-right European People's Party was set to win 214 out of the 751 seats, with 28.5% across the bloc, according to estimated results issued by the European Parliament. That would make it the biggest group - but with more than 60 seats fewer than before.

Media captionThe BBC's Jeremy Vine uses graphics to show how EU citizens voted That puts it ahead of the Socialist group with 189 seats (25.17%), Liberals with 66 (8.79%) and Greens 52 (6.92%). EPP leader Jean-Claude Juncker insisted the majority of people had voted to be a part of Europe. "The extreme right, contrary to what some of the media has said, did not win this election," he said. "We will have a clear pro-European majority in this house," added the man who is the frontrunner to be the next president of the European Commission. The Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group appeared to have around 38 seats, including the 24 confirmed seats for the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Media captionNigel Farage: "The people's army of UKIP have spoken tonight" But the number of non-attached right-wing MEPs is set to rise, boosting the Eurosceptic camp.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, commenting on his party's success in Britain, said: "The inevitability of European integration ends tonight." The anti-bailout hard-left group in parliament was set to make big gains, largely thanks to Syriza in Greece and United Left in Spain, gaining about 12 seats. Martin Schulz, the former Socialist president of the European Parliament - said of the FN victory: "It's a bad day for the European Union, when a party with a racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic programme gets 25% of the vote." Image copyright Reuters Image caption Angela Merkel said the response to the far-right swing must be to boost employment and the economy Image copyright AP Image caption Morten Messerschmidt, of the Danish People's Party, was among the Eurosceptic winners Image copyright Reuters Image caption But many Socialists had a disappointing night - including their candidate for Commission president Martin Schulz Image copyright AFP Image caption Sweden's Feminist Initiative becomes the first formally feminist party to send an MEP to Brussels The election is the biggest exercise in multi-national democracy in the world. The vote will affect the lives of the EU's 500 million citizens.

The parliament's powers have expanded since the last election in 2009, and it is hoping to have a decisive say in who gets the EU's top job, president of the European Commission. You can follow full coverage with all the latest updates at bbc.co.uk/vote2014 . Ukip storms European elections - Telegraph UKIP Ukip storms European elections Nigel Farage says Ukip's success in the European elections will 'terrify' political establishment and prove 'disastrous' for Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg By James Kirkup, and Steven Swinford 7:36AM BST 25 May 2014 The UK Independence Party has won a national election for the first time, taking the most votes and seats in the European Parliament elections. The Ukip victory came as anti-establishment parties advanced across the European Union, with the racist National Front winning in France. The win for Ukip, which was only founded in 1993 and does not have a single MP or council leader, is the biggest challenge to Britain’s main parties for decades. Ukip gained ten new MEPs and finished taking 27.5 per cent of the vote and 23 MEPs.

Labour won 25.4 per cent, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives on 24 per cent. Scotland and Northern Ireland are still to declare their results. Both parties have 18 MEPs so far. Related Articles Why in Essex the only way is UKIP 23 May 2014 The result was the first time since 1910 that a national election was not won by either the Conservatives or Labour. The Liberal Democrats on 7 per cent were losing a humiliating fight for fourth place to the Greens in 8 per cent and narrowly averted the “shattering” loss of all their MEPs. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said the outcome would “terrify” the older parties and predicted his party could now go on to hold the balance of power at Westminster. The European result marks “the most extraordinary result in 100 years,” he said. Nigel Farage and UKIP candidates celebrate as the South East England region results are declared (AFP/GETTY) Mr Farage has said he wants to use the results as a springboard to mount a serious challenge in next year’s general election.

He has said he will run in a Kent constituency, with Thanet South thought to be his most likely choice. “We will go on next year to the general election with a targeted stategy and I promise you this – you haven’t heard the last of us,” Mr Farage said. Ukip has said it will target 20 to 30 constituencies next year and Patrick O’Flynn, one of the party’s new MEPs, suggested it could win a handful of seats: “Four, five, six, seven, 10, who knows?” Mr Farage said that the weakness of the main parties meant he could end up holding the balance of power in a hung Parliament next year. “It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that we could get enough MPs to hold the balance of power. All I can say is we go on surprising people,” he said. Last night was the first time the main Opposition party has failed to win a European election since 1984 and a serious setback to Ed Miliband. Mr Farage said that the result would bring fundamental change to British politics. He told The Daily Telegraph: “The political establishment will be terrified by this.

They will all have to do a very large amount of soul-searching and realise that the usual platitude ‘We’re listening’ isn’t enough.” Mr Farage said that Labour and the Lib Dems were the main losers from the Ukip advance. “It is going to be disastrous for Ed Miliband, disastrous for Nick Clegg and a poor night for David Cameron,” he said. Pressure is mounting on Mr Clegg, whose party was braced for another electoral disaster. He has been urged by a Lib Dem MP and activists to stand down because he is no longer a “credible” leader of the party. More than 200 people, including Lib Dem candidates, have signed a letter calling for Mr Clegg to be replaced as leader, an outcome that might raise doubts about the Coalition’s ability to last until next year’s election. The Lib Dems won 11 MEPs in 2009, but were left with just a single representative after this year’s election. The party were completely wiped out in the South West, a traditional strong hold for the Lib Dems.

The most high profile casualty Sir Graham Watson, who first won a seat on the European Parliament in 1994, failed to be re-elected as one of six MEPs for the region. Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president, said the party faced “shattering” losses. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, said the party was having a “very bad night” but insisted Mr Clegg would survive. Labour sources insisted that the result was positive for the party, saying Labour was making gains in marginal Westminster constituencies. Chuka Ummuna, Labour’s shadow business secretary told the BBC: “We have to keep this in perspective. Look at Ukip’s share of the vote in the local election; they didn’t win a single council so they are going to have some hurdles to claims. But we take them seriously and we respect the result. But the failure to beat Ukip in the European election will intensify Labour doubts about the performance of Mr Miliband and his strategy for dealing with Ukip. Labour MPs including members of the shadow front bench believe that he has failed to accept that Ukip presents a political threat to Labour.

Before the result, Frank Field, a former Labour minister, warned that Ukip posed “the greatest threat” to his party. “If we are to win next year, it will be Ukip that becomes our main opposition,” he said. “If we lose, after the country going through the worst recession ever, we could see part of our vote moving over permanently.” Conservative sources said the party expected to finish third, although closer to the Labour share of the vote than many had expected. The result is the latest sign of how the Conservatives are struggling to curb the rise of Ukip in recent years. A poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative vice-chairman, found Labour was on course to win the general election because Ukip was taking away significant numbers of Tory voters in key marginal constituencies. Still, Tory sources last night pointed out that the party’s share of the vote had barely fallen in south-west England and in Wales. In Scotland, where Ukip was on course for its first MEP, the Conservative vote actually rose. Some Conservative MPs have called for a general election pact with Ukip next year, something David Cameron has flatly rejected.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said that voters who backed Ukip in the European elections would come back to the Tories next year. “I think there is a deep disillusionment and dissatisfaction not just in this country but across Europe,” he said. “I think that people do know that in the European elections they can have a free vote, a free hit. It is very different from a general election.” He added: "People are entirely capable of voting different ways in different elections. People use different elections to deliver different messages." Euroskeptic election surge gives EU a headache | Reuters Mon May 26, 2014 | 4:27 PM EDT Euroskeptic election surge gives EU a headache 1/20 People watch a board displaying provisional results of the European Parliament election at the EU Parliament in Brussels May 25, 2014. May 25, 2014. Reuters/Francois Lenoir + 2/20 A board displays provisional results of the European Parliament election at the EU Parliament in Brussels May 25, 2014.

Reuters/Eric Vidal + 3/20 Jean Claude Junker makes a statement on the provisional results of the European elections in Brussels May 25, 2014. Reuters/Eric Vidal + 4/20 Party workers at the Swedish Feminist Initiative, a feminist political party, celebrate to the exit polls that make the party Sweden's second biggest party in the European Parliament elections, in Stockholm May 25, 2014. Reuters/Maja Suslin/TT News Agency + 5/20 Members of the electoral table count the ballots next to a member (L) of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) after the European Parliament elections at a polling station in Ronda, near Malaga, southern Spain, May 25, 2014. Reuters/Jon Nazca + 6/20 Jean Claude Junker makes a statement on the provisional results of the European elections in Brussels May 25, 2014.

Reuters/Eric Vidal + 7/20 Jean-Francois Cope (R), France's centre-right UMP political party head, reacts to results after the polls closed in the European Parliament elections at their party headquarters in Paris, May 25, 2014. Reuters/Charles Platiau + 8/20 A board displays provisional results of the European Parliament election at the EU Parliament in Brussels May 25, 2014. Reuters/Eric Vidal + 9/20 Marine Le Pen, France's National Front political party head, reacts to results after the polls closed in the European Parliament elections at the party's headquarters in Nanterre, near Paris, May 25, 2014. Reuters/Christian Hartmann + 10/20 Soraya Post, prime candidate for the Swedish Feminist Initiative, a feminist political party, reacts to the exit polls that give her a ticket to Brussels in the European Parliament elections, in Stockholm May 25, 2014.

Reuters/Maja Suslin/TT News Agency + 11/20 European Parliamentary election ballot papers, from the local area, are counted, in Southampton, southern England May 25, 2014. Reuters/Luke MacGregor + 12/20 European Parliamentary election ballot papers, from the local area, are sorted as part of the count, in Southampton, southern England May 25, 2014. Reuters/Luke MacGregor + 13/20 Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola wait in the queue to cast their vote for the European Parliament and Belgium general elections in Brussels May 25, 2014. Reuters/Eric Vidal + 14/20 Gabor Vona, the chairman of the far-right Jobbik party and his wife Krisztina leave a ballot booth to vote on the European Parliamentary elections in Budapest May 25, 2014.

Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 15/20 Gabor Vona, the chairman of the far-right Jobbik party, casts his ballot helped by his son Benedek next to his wife Krisztina during European Parliamentary elections in Budapest May 25, 2014. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 16/20 Belgian Flemish right-wing party (N-VA) President Bart De Wever prepares to cast his vote for the European Parliament and Belgium's general elections in Deurne near Antwerp May 25, 2014. Reuters/Francois Lenoir + 17/20 Citizens cast their votes for the European Parliament and Belgium's general elections in Deurne near Antwerp May 25, 2014. Reuters/Francois Lenoir + 18/20 A girl holding a doll waits for her mother outside a voting booth during European Parliament and Lithuania's presidential elections in Vilnius May 25, 2014.

Reuters/Ints Kalnins + 19/20 A man casts his vote during European Parliament and Lithuania's presidential elections in Vilnius May 25, 2014. Reuters/Ints Kalnins + 20/20 A woman casts her vote during European Parliament and Lithuania's presidential elections in Vilnius May 25, 2014. Reuters/Ints Kalnins + By Paul Taylor and Robin Emmott | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Stunning victories in European Parliament elections by nationalist, Euroskeptic parties from France and Britain left the European Union licking its wounds on Monday and facing a giant policy dilemma. Across the continent, anti-establishment parties of the far right and hard left more than doubled their representation, harnessing a mood of anger with Brussels over austerity, mass unemployment and immigration. While the center-right and center-left will continue to control more than half of the 751 seats in the EU legislature, they will face an unprecedented challenge from noisy insurgents determined to stop business as usual in the 28-nation bloc.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the breakthrough by Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, anti-euro National Front, which topped a national vote for the first time and pushed his Socialists into third place, a political "earthquake". He sought to counter her immediately by offering more tax cuts to spur an economy which is flatlining. Across the Channel, another tremor raised new doubts about Britain's long-term future in the EU. Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party, which advocates immediate withdrawal, defeated the opposition Labour party and Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives. The anti-EU vote was amplified in many countries by a low turnout of just 43.1 percent, but the pro-European center ground held firm in Germany, the EU's biggest member state with the largest number of seats, as well as Italy and Spain. France is one of the EU's founder members and the weakness of President Francois Hollande leaves German Chancellor Angela Merkel without a strong partner for the next leg of integration which economists say is vital to underpin the euro currency but which leaves voters cold. "It will be more about pursuing policies that resonate with the people," Merkel said after her conservative bloc emerged as the strongest party grouping in Germany.

"They are less interested in the issue of whether there should be treaty change or not, but rather whether Europe is making a difference in their own lives," she added, noting high jobless rates in some countries had damaged trust in the EU. A German-led drive to cut EU states' debts in response to the economic crisis which engulfed the bloc in 2010 is blamed by many for deepening recessions and delaying recovery. Merkel called the far right and populist advances "remarkable and regrettable" and said France needed to focus on competitiveness, jobs and economic growth to overcome voters' disenchantment - a message echoed by French analysts. "The legitimacy of Europe is weakened, the legitimacy of France in Europe is weakened further," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations. "To function, Europe needs a strong balance between France and Germany.

But France is moving the way of Italy or Greece in economic terms and moving the way of Britain in its relationship with Europe." NO EARLY REFERENDUM In Britain, Cameron rebuffed UKIP leader Nigel Farage's call for an early referendum on an EU exit, sticking to his plan to renegotiate membership terms if he is re-elected next year, and put the result to an in/out plebiscite in 2017. However, some analysts said UKIP's surge may force the prime minister to toughen his stance on Europe and could scare more pro-European voters in Scotland into opting to leave Britain in a September referendum. Center-left Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi bucked the trend of anti-EU, anti-incumbent votes, scoring a stunning 41 percent to beat populist Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement by a wide margin, with disgraced ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia trailing a weak third. Renzi vowed to use his mandate to press for an easing of the EU's budgetary straitjacket to allow more public investment in growth and jobs, posing a policy challenge for Merkel, the guardian of fiscal orthodoxy.

"I consider this a vote of extraordinary hope for a country that has all the conditions to be able to change, and that can invite Europe to change," Renzi told reporters. The Democratic Party leader said he would serve out his term until 2018 to press ahead with economic reforms rather than using his popularity to call an early general election. A French official said Hollande would back Renzi's call for more pro-growth policies and tell EU leaders who meet on Tuesday evening that Europe had reached "the alarm level". With France in a malaise, Renzi's hold on the rotating six-month EU presidency in the second half of the year gives him an opportunity to become a major player in the bloc if he can find common cause with Merkel. The center-right European People's Party, led by former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, was set to win 213 seats, provisional results issued by the parliament showed. Juncker claimed a mandate to lead the executive European Commission, batting away questions about Cameron's reported opposition to his bid and saying Merkel's backing was "crystal clear". "I don't care," the 59-year-old veteran federalist told a news conference, mopping his brow under the television lights.

"I'm not on my knees. I won the election." Merkel was more guarded at her Berlin news conference, saying she would go into the negotiation with Juncker as her candidate but neither big group could dictate the outcome, which could take weeks. The center-left Socialists, led by outgoing European Parliament President Martin Schulz of Germany, were in second place with 190 seats followed by the centrist liberals on 64 and the Greens on 53. Euroskeptic groups were expected to win about 142 seats, according to a Reuters estimate. PRESSURE TO TACK RIGHT The political fallout may be felt more strongly in national politics than at EU level, pulling mainstream conservative parties further to the right and raising pressure to crack down on immigration. The anti-immigration far right People's Party topped the poll in Denmark and the extreme-right Jobbik, widely accused of racism and anti-Semitism, finished second in Hungary. In the Netherlands, the anti-Islam, Euroskeptic Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders - which plans an alliance with Le Pen - underperformed but still finished joint second in terms of seats behind a pro-European centrist opposition party.

Average turnout was only fractionally higher than the 2009 nadir of 43 percent despite efforts to personalize the election with the main political families putting forward a leading candidate, or "Spitzenkandidat". In Greece, epicenter of the euro zone's debt crisis, the radical left anti-austerity Syriza movement of Alexis Tsipras won the vote but failed to deliver a knockout blow to the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. The two parties in the coalition, New Democracy and PASOK, won a combined vote larger than that of Syriza, and political analyst Theodore Couloumbis said the government's survival was not at stake despite its narrow two-seat majority. (Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Luke Baker, Martin Santa and Julia Fioretti in Brussels, Mark John and Pauline Mevel in Paris, Noah Barkin in Berlin, Andrew Osborn in London, James MacKenzie in Rome, Karolina Tagaris in Athens.

Editing by Mike Peacock) ADVERTISEMENT European elections: six countries that went left, not right | World news | The Guardian European elections: six countries that went left, not right Which nations bucked the trend in the Euro elections and surged towards leftwing parties? Supporters of Greece's opposition Syriza party, overall winner in the Euro elections. Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP Monday 26 May 2014 11.26 EDT First published on Monday 26 May 2014 11.26 EDT Share on Messenger Close The headline gains were for nationalist and Eurosceptic parties – witness all those pictures of "evil" Nigel Farage smiling into his pint glass, or of Marine Le Pen, whose Front National party triumphed in France , throwing back her head and cackling. But some member nations bucked the trend in the Euro elections and registered a surge towards leftwing candidates. Here's who: Spain Willy Meyer of Spain's United Left party, which gained around 12 seats. Photograph: Fernando Villar/EPA The People's party was one of the few governing parties to win the largest portion of the vote.

But it's the large gains by leftwing parties that are exciting political commentators. Between them, the two dominant political parties (People's party and Socialist party) lost five million votes compared with their 2009 performance. Meanwhile, the protest party Podemos ("We can") took nearly 8% of the vote and five seats. Podemos was formed only four months ago, having grown out of the Spanish indignados who camped out in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square in 2011. Coalition group United Left also gained four seats, further increasing the voice of the left in parliament. "It's the hour of the people. This is only the beginning," Podemos's leader Pablo Iglesias, tweeted. "Clearly, we can." Greece First, the bad news. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party claimed three seats, its first MEPs, with around 9.37% of the vote – a huge improvement on its 2009 performance, in which it polled less than 0.5%. But the overall winner in Greece was the leftwing opposition party Syriza, which campaigned against the government's austerity policies.

Partial results indicate it won the vote by three or four points from the governing New Democracy party. Italy Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, whose centre-left Democratic party exceeded expections. Photograph: Rex Features Prime minister Matteo Renzi and his centre-left Democratic party exceeded expectations to win just over 40% of the vote. The Five Star Movement led by the former comedian Beppe Grillo, an anti-establishment, anti-European party, came second but with fewer votes than expected. Forza Italia, the party of Silvio Berlusconi, took its lowest ever vote share. Italy, the stable heart of Europe: you heard it here first. The massive endorsement of Renzi, however, is very much a matter of national politics. He was the elected mayor of Florence and holds no seat in parliament; he became prime minister in February at the invitation of Italian president Giorgio Napolitano. The result gives him the mandate he lacked. Portugal Socialist party candidate Francisco Assis (left) embraces the party leader Antonio Jose Seguro after their election victory.

Photograph: Tiago Petinga/EPA "From Dublin to Lublin, from Portugal to Pomerania, the pitchfork-wielding populists are converging on the Breydel building in Brussels – drunk on local hooch and chanting nationalist slogans and preparing to give the federalist machinery a good old kicking with their authentically folkloric clogs," Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph on Monday. Actually, this is a little unfair on Portugal, which Johnson may have included for alliterative reasons. There was no emergence of a particularly Eurosceptic party. The country's opposition Socialist party topped the poll with around 31.5% – leaving the ruling Social Democratic party in second place. The victory was driven by an electorate registering its objection to austerity measures; the country exited its ¤78bn (£63bn) euro bailout programme earlier this month. Slovakia You would be hard pushed to call it a surge. Only around 13% of the Slovakian electorate voted – and they voted in support of the ruling Smer socialist party. Eurosceptic liberals SaS got one seat. But the dominant mode of Euroscepticism here is Euroabstention. Romania A Romanian woman casts her vote.

Photograph: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images Farage put Romania firmly on the British political agenda. But there has been no Eurosceptic backlash in Romania, where preliminary data indicates that the governing alliance of the Romanian Social Democratic party prime minister Victor Ponta is on course to win 37.3% of votes. Let's hope that Farage gets to sit next to some nice Romanian MEPs. Note: This article was amended on May 27, 2014. The original stated that United Left had gained around 12 seats. This figure referred to the total gains of the anti-bailout hard-left group in the European Parliament. United Left gained four seats. | Politics , Europe , France , Germany , Greece French far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said the people had spoken "loud and clear" [AP] Far-right and anti-European Union parties have made sweeping gains in the European Parliament elections held over the 28 member states. Voters in 21 of the EU's states went to the polls on Sunday, choosing members for the bloc's 751-seat legislature.

The other seven countries in the bloc had already voted in a sprawling exercise of democracy that began on Thursday in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. One of the most significant winners was France's far-right National Front party, which was the outright winner in France with 26 percent support or 4.1m votes. The anti-immigration, anti-EU party should win about 25 of France's 74 seats in the parliament, according to average results from five polling institutes published on Sunday. The party currently holds three seats. Marine Le Pen, the National Front's leader, said: "The people have spoken loud and clear. They no longer want to be led by those outside our borders, by EU commissioners and technocrats who are unelected." French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in an impassioned televised speech, called the National Front win "serious, very serious for France, for Europe". "It's an earthquake," said Manuel Valls, the French Socialist prime minister brought in by President Francois Hollande barely two months ago after the party suffered a similar rout in local elections. UKIP takes 23 seats France's National Front was not the only party benefiting from widespread disillusionment with the EU.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK's fiercely anti-EU UKIP party, looked set to score an historic victory over both the Conservatives and Labour. "I don't just want Britain to leave the European Union," Farage said, "I want Europe to leave the European Union". Official results announced with only Scotland and Northern Ireland left to declare had UKIP with about 27 percent of the vote, some 10 percent higher than the most recent European election in 2009 and with 23 seats. David Cameron's Conservatives and Labour both won 18 seats. The anti-immigration and anti-EU Danish People's Party won its country's EU election, snaring 26.7 percent of the vote and four of Denmark's 13 seats. Exit polls in Sweden showed the Feminist Initiative Party entering the EU parliament for the first time, backed by 7 percent of Swedes. The Green Party surged to 17.1 percent from 11 percent in 2009 and the far-right Sweden democrats won 7 percent support compared to 3.3 percent in 2009.

While Greece's left-wing opposition Syriza party succeeded in capturing 26.6 percent of the Greek vote on its anti-austerity platform, the country's extreme right Golden Dawn party was third in the count with 9.4 percent. Golden Dawn, a former neo-Nazi organisation whose leader and members are to face trial for criminal acts including murder, arson and extortion, will send three representatives to the European parliament. Austria's far-right Freedom Party advanced to take 20 percent of the vote with an anti-immigrant campaign that called for halving Vienna's EU contributions and demanded a referendum on the EU's crucial bailout fund. The right-wing anti-immigration party in the Netherlands, Gurt Wilders' Freedom Party, however, was a surprise failure, winning just 12.2 percent of the vote and just three seats, compared with 17 percent in 2009. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives claimed victory with 35.3 percent of the vote, despite strong gains for the centre-left Social Democrats. A new anti-EU party, the Alternative for Germany made its debut into the parliament, polling 7 per cent.

Pro-EU still poised to win Despite the anti-EU, or so-called Eurosceptic gains, established pro-EU parties were forecast to remain the biggest group in the parliament. The conservative caucus, known as EPP, was set to win 211 seats, down from 274, but enough to remain the largest group. The estimated turnout by the 400m eligible voters was narrowly up from 2009, at 43.1 percent. The European parliament's members have a say in approving all EU laws and also in appointing a new EU commission president. Source: Agencies After the elections – the European political groups | Counterpoint News News, opinions & media Counterpoint hosts regular events across the world and publishes a variety of articles, news items and briefs.

On this page you will find all of these including Counterpoints, our flagship series of commentary pieces After the elections – the European political groups Chart 1: populist groupings in the European Parliament (rated according to threat to European values) Chart 2: populist groupings in the European Parliament (rated according to willingness to block and disrupt) Note: this is an update of our original post-election analysis (which can be accessed here ), before the final composition of the European Parliament’s political groups was announced on June 24. We have updated the analysis in line with this new information. Summary A strong performance by some populist parties at the European elections means that there is a significant increase in populist MEPs in the new Parliament. We have previously warned of the risk that the functioning of the Parliament will be hindered and disrupted by the incoming populists. Our charts (above and below) show that populists will be severely fragmented in the Parliament. UKIP has succeeded in forming a political group: the newly titled ‘Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy’ (EFDD). The Front National has failed to form a group for now.

We have rated populist parties according to their threat to European values (openness, tolerance, democracy, etc.) The first chart shows that some populist parties are far more dangerous on this measure than others. We have also rated populist parties according to their willingness to block and disrupt the functioning of the European Parliament. A high score on this measure does not necessarily coincide with a high score on ‘threat to European values’. We give UKIP a relatively low score on the ‘threat to European values’ measure but a high score on the ‘willingness to block and disrupt’ measure. The more moderate populist parties – both in terms of their threat to European values and their willingness to block and disrupt – are more likely to have influence in the Parliament in comparison to more extreme forms of populism. In-depth analysis Last month we released a matrix comparing Europe’s different populist parties. With the European elections resulting in record scores for some (though not all) populist parties, it is worth seeing how these strong performances will translate into a populist presence in the European Parliament. The variations we charted clearly show that populists won’t all band together in the Parliament – their priorities, histories and strategies are too different for that to be an option.

But there are some commonalities: here we chart them based on our analysis last month. The charts shown here indicate the current arrangement of populist parties in the European Parliament. Parties had to submit a request to form a group by June 24. These groups can change over the coming Parliament – members can leave groups, join new ones, and form completely new ones. But this is the state of play for the moment. In our chart, the size of each of the party’s blocks represents the number of MEPs they now have. The danger these parties pose is twofold: a threat to open societies and European values but also a block to constructive policymaking and the functioning of the Parliament. The first chart rates the different parties on the first of these dimensions: ‘Threat to European values’. The second chart rates them on the second of these: ‘Willingness to block and disrupt’. We use a four-colour scale, from green (low danger) to amber, orange and red (high danger). So, for instance, UKIP is rated as red on the ‘Willingness to block and disrupt’ dimension but amber on the ‘Threat to European values’ dimension’.

This is because UKIP MEPs tend to operate as a purely unconstructive force in the Parliament, tending to vote no to any proposal put to them, but the party still broadly upholds European values: in our matrix last month, it received mostly greens and ambers on measures such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia and anti-Semitism. Below we explain in more depth the methodology behind the two charts, including both the reasons for our decisions on the composition of the different groups and the rationale behind our ratings. First, though, we summarise the key messages we can glean from our charts. Key messages To form a political group in the European Parliament you need 25 MEPs from seven different member states. The main political groups with little populist influence are, in order of size, the centre right European People’s Party (EPP), the centre left Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D), the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and the Greens-European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA). Then there’s the radical left GUE-NGL, containing a number of parties that have performed well at the European elections, including the anti-austerity Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain.

With perhaps a couple of exceptions – such as the Dutch Socialist Party – parties in this group are not populist (see our analysis ), so we won’t focus on the group here. This leaves us with newly formed EFDD group – led by UKIP – as well as the ECR and the parties that will not be part of any group (known as ‘non-attached’). Populists are present across all three groupings – testament to their fragmentation and their differing priorities and aims. We look at each of these groupings in turn. The ECR The ECR is dominated mostly by the centre right British Conservatives and the Polish Law and Justice party. Despite rumours before the elections that the group would struggle to meet the requirements to form, the ECR will in fact be the third largest group in the European Parliament: new allies include the Flemish regionalist N-VA, Bulgaria without Censorship, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, two small conservative Slovakian parties, the Independent Greeks – and, more controversially, the Finns Party and the Danish People’s Party. In short, plenty of MEPs from plenty of different member states.

Only a few of these parties could be considered populist – specifically the Danish People’s Party and the Finns Party, as well as possibly the Independent Greeks, the Latvian National Alliance and Bulgaria without Censorship. We have included these parties in our chart. (In fact, the Danish People’s Party is considered by the political scientist Cas Mudde to be a populist radical right party; he treats the Finns Party as a borderline case.) Within our matrix of populist parties, they were on the more moderate end of the spectrum. But they still exhibit the typical traits of populism – and the Danish People’s Party in particular has a record of xenophobia and Islamophobia. Its party programme from 2002, for instance, states: ‘Denmark is not an immigrant-country and never has been. Thus we will not accept transformation to a multiethnic society.’ On top of this, the Alternative for Germany party – again a moderate populist party according to our matrix – also joined the ECR after a vote by the group’s MEPs. This was against the wishes of Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister David Cameron and a number of ECR members. Finally, and most controversially of all, the ECR has admitted Angel Djambazki.

Djambazki ran with Bulgaria without Censorship at the European elections but is in fact the Deputy Chair of the nationalist VRMO. He has made a number of stridently anti-immigration, homophobic and transphobic comments and could prove a liability for the ECR. The effect of including MEPs from parties such as the Finns Party, the Danish People’s Party and the VRMO in the ECR is two-fold. First, it could potentially help to moderate these parties – as Counterpoint author Martin Sandbu argued recently in the Financial Times, the inclusion of the populist Norwegian Progress Party in government has hastened its march towards respectability and reasonableness. Second, it could help to legitimise more extreme and xenophobic voices. It appears to have opened the way for the Sweden Democrats – which has an extremist past but which also has a relationship with the Danish People’s Party – to join with UKIP.

(Previously UKIP leader Nigel Farage had said that he thought it was ‘unlikely’ that his party would work with the Sweden Democrats.) And individuals within the Finns Party and the Danish People’s Party – for instance, the controversial Finns MEP Jussi Halla-Aho, who was in 2012 charged with inciting hatred against ethnic groups – have been legitimised by the move. For the most part, what marks out these populist parties (particularly the Finns, the Danish People’s Party and the AfD) from others in our charts is a willingness to participate in constructive policy-making. These are not just parties of ‘no’ – they have in the past shown an inclination to fight for reform rather than just block and hamper parliamentary activities. This is presumably one of the reasons the ECR is open to working them. THE EFDD UKIP has successfully reformed its former group, ‘Europe of Freedom and Democracy’, under a slightly different name: ‘Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy’ (emphasis added). The group’s members are very different to the EF(D)D’s former incarnation. Other than UKIP, only one party remains as a member: the Lithuanian Order and Justice party (TT).

Most of the others have left the group to join the ECR, though some have lost representation in the European Parliament altogether (the Slovak National Party and the Greek LAOS), while Lega Nord, UKIP’s former major partner, left earlier in the year to embark on an ultimately fruitless attempt to form a group with the Front National and other likeminded parties. In UKIP’s new group, Lega Nord has been replaced by Beppe Grillo’s Italian Five Star Movement, a populist party that promotes Internet-based direct democracy but that doesn’t have a focus on immigration. In last month’s matrix, we rated it as one of the most moderate populist parties. The two parties differ on major issues, including environmental policy, the economy, and the EU itself. But Beppe Grillo has showered praise on Farage, defending him from allegations of racism and stressing their commonalities. In particular, the two parties have emphasised their shared appreciation of direct democracy, presumably one of the reasons for the group’s name change.

Still, despite this overlap, the sheer variety of MEPs within the EFDD make it a very fragmented political animal, less about a shared platform than about the individual benefits that come with official group recognition: funds, speaking time, committee seats, etc. The earlier EFD worked in a similar way. It had a very low rate of cohesion – its members voted in very different ways – and was held together ideologically by a critical attitude to the EU. (Even on this issue the different parties that joined with UKIP had quite different views – UKIP’s fully-fledged anti-EU position was much more extreme than other members.) There was no whipping system – members could vote however they liked. The EFDD has not admitted violent or anti-Semitic parties, nor will it align with the stigmatised Front National. The purpose of this group is not to pursue a populist radical right message: it is, in the words of Nigel Farage, to ‘have fun causing a lot of trouble for Brussels’ without associating itself with parties considered too toxic. This is reflected in our two charts above: the parties currently under the ‘EFDD’ column are for the most part not fundamentally against European values, but they are willing to hinder the functioning of the European Parliament.

The non-attached members Before the elections, five populist groups – including the French Front National, the Dutch PVV, the Italian Lega Nord, the Austrian Freedom Party, and the Belgian Vlaams Belang – joined forces in an attempt to form a strong Eurosceptic block in the Parliament. However, they appear to have fallen at the first hurdle, unable to meet the rule stipulating that the group contain MEPs from at least seven member states. Many parties distanced themselves from the alliance, including the Sweden Democrats, who initially showed signs that they might join but ultimately went with the more politically acceptable EFDD. Others (such as the Greek Golden Dawn, the Hungarian Jobbik and eventually, after private talks, the Polish Order of the New Right) were too extreme for Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, the respective leaders of the Front National and the PVV. And finally, some potential allies – such as the Slovak National Party – failed to retain any seats in the European Parliament. While there is a possibility that these parties will pick up some independent MEPs and will meet the requirements for forming a group down the line, for now we expect them to remain as non-attached MEPs.

(There is a small possibility that some will try to join the EFDD, but it’s unlikely that they would be admitted at this point.) This means that there will be a large rump of non-attached MEPs in the Parliament, including the Front National and its allies as well as parties that are more overtly racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and in some cases violent. (Some of these more extreme parties may not be considered populist, but we have included them here because they were considered by many as potential allies of other populist parties. For instance, the Polish KNP is better described as a conservative libertarian party with anti-democratic tendencies as opposed to a populist one. But it did engage in talks with the Front National and other populist about forming an alliance and for this reason we include it.) In last month’s matrix, these parties all tended to get red and amber labels along many measures, and in our chart above they clearly pose the greatest threat to European values. Most are also very willing to disrupt the functioning of the Parliament. But their ability to do so is limited – without a formal political group, mainstream MEPs will find these parties much easier to ignore.

All in all, the encouraging message from our analysis is that, roughly speaking, the more dangerous populists will find themselves more likely to be marginalised in the Parliament than their comparatively moderate counterparts. Moderate populists looking to make more constructive contributions to policy, such as the Finns Party and the Danish Peoples Party, will, we expect, have more influence by virtue of their inclusion in the ECR, the third largest political group in the European Parliament. Other populists who are more willing to disrupt the Parliament’s working will congregate in the EFDD. Finally, the most extreme parties won’t be part of any political group. Few populists will be particularly influential in the Parliament – but the most dangerous will be completely ostracised. Methodology How does the rating system for ‘Threat to European values’ in the first chart work? The four ratings (green, amber, orange, red) are based on the scores we gave in our matrix last month. Taking the first nine columns in the matrix as proxies for ‘European values’ (from ‘violent?’ to ‘sexist?’), we scored each red light as 2, each amber light as 1 and each green light as 0.

We then summed the scores according to this rule for each party. We found four clusters of parties: Golden Dawn, Jobbik, Ataka and the BNP scored between 16 and 18 – we rate these parties as red (‘high danger’) The Austrian Freedom Party, the Slovak National Party, the Front National, Vlaams Belang, the Sweden Democrats, the PVV, Lega Nord and the Danish People’s Party scored between 6 and 15 – we rate these parties as orange (‘moderate to high danger’) The Finns Party, the AfD and UKIP scored between 4 and 5 – we rate these parties as amber (‘low to moderate danger’) The Five Star Movement and the Norwegian Progress Party both scored 2 – we rate these parties as green (‘low danger’) Some of these parties are not in the European Parliament, however, and some parties currently in the Parliament that are included in our chart were not in our original matrix. For this latter group of parties, we have given an approximate overall rating based on our knowledge of the parties and our judgment of where they stand in relation to the others in the chart. (The BBT block is split into two colours.

This is because it consists of MEPs from two different parties: the nationalist VMRO and the BBT itself.) How does the rating system for ‘Willingness to block and disrupt’ in the second chart work? The four rating (green, amber, orange, red) are based on the behaviour of populist MEPs in the European Parliament. Table 5 (pp. 27-28) of our report ‘Conflicted Politicians’ ranks parties in the European Parliament according to how often they opposed the consensus in the Parliament on a range of issues. According to our analysis, four clusters of parties emerge: ‘Parties of no’ – such as UKIP and the PVV – who tend to vote against proposals regardless of the issue. They are at the top of Table 5 in our report (red – ‘high danger’). Somewhat less contrary parties, such as the Front National, the Austrian Freedom Party and Vlaams Belang. They are at towards the top end of Table 5 in our report (orange – ‘moderate to high danger’).

(We have placed Jobbik here despite the fact that it is ranked fairly low in the table in our report, given that Jobbik’s position in the table is partly due to a high abstention rate among Jobbik MEPs and given that the party has a record of antagonistic behaviour in plenary debates in the Parliament.) More cooperative parties, such as the Finns Party, the Danish People’s Party and Lega Nord. They are in the middle of Table 5 in our report (amber – ‘low to moderate danger’). Parties that are most likely to align with the political consensus in the Parliament, such as the Latvian National Alliance and the Lithuanian Order and Justice party. They are towards the bottom of Table 5 in our report or do not appear in the table at all (green – ‘low danger’). Of course, we do not yet have information about parties previously not in the European Parliament. Here we have made judgements based on our general information about these parties as well as how these parties have behaved in their respective national parliaments.

National Front tops European Parliament vote in France - World - CBC News National Front tops European Parliament vote in France Widespread protest vote against austerity seen across EU Thomson Reuters Posted: May 25, 2014 5:29 PM ET Last Updated: May 25, 2014 9:48 PM ET Marine Le Pen, France's National Front political party head, reacts to results after the polls closed in the European Parliament elections at the party's headquarters in Nanterre, near Paris, Sunday. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters) Related Stories Canada-EU free trade deal could change auto industry Far-right and Euroskeptic parties made sweeping gains in European Parliament elections Sunday — triggering what one prime minister called a political "earthquake" by those who want to slash the powers of the European Union or abolish it altogether. Voters in 21 of the EU's 28 nations went to the polls Sunday, choosing lawmakers for the bloc's 751-seat legislature. The other seven countries in the bloc had already voted in a sprawling exercise of democracy that began Thursday in Britain and the Netherlands.

One of the most significant winners was France's far-right National Front party, which was the outright winner in France with 26 per cent support— or 4.1 million votes. "The sovereign people have spoken ... acclaiming they want to take back the reins of their destiny," party leader Marine Le Pen said in a statement. She called the results "the first step in a long march to liberty." A board displays provisional results of the European Parliament election at the EU Parliament in Brussels. (Eric Vidal/Reuters) French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in an impassioned televised speech, called the National Front win "more than a news alert ... it is a shock, an earthquake." French President Francois Hollande's office announced he would hold urgent talks first thing Monday with top government ministers in what French media called a crisis meeting. All of Europe will have to deal with the fallout, analysts and politicians said. Pro-European parties "have to take very seriously what is behind the vote," said Martin Schulz of the Socialist group in parliament.

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal caucus in the European Parliament, conceded as much but said even after the vote, two-thirds of the European lawmakers would be "people who are in favour of the European Union." UKIP gains Despite the Euroskeptic gains, established pro-EU parties were forecast to remain the biggest groups in the parliament. The conservative caucus, known as EPP, was forecast to win 211 seats, down from 274, but enough to remain the parliament's biggest group. The National Front was not the only party benefiting from widespread disillusionment with the EU. Nigel Farage, leader of the fiercely Euroskeptical UKIP party, believed he was on track for a historic victory. "It does look to me (like) UKIP is going to win this election and yes, that will be an earthquake, because never before in the history of British politics has a party that is seen to be an insurgent party ever topped the polls in a national election," he said. 'I don't just want Britain to leave the European Union. I want Europe to leave the European Union' - Nigel Farage, UKIP party leader "I don't just want Britain to leave the European Union," he added.

"I want Europe to leave the European Union." The first official results announced late Sunday had UKIP at about 30 per cent, some 12 per cent higher than the last European elections in 2009. In Denmark, with 95 percent of votes counted, the main government party, the Social Democrats, retained their five seats to remain the biggest party. But the big winner in the elections was the populist, opposition Danish People's Party, which won three more seats for a total of four. A year-old party in Germany that wants that country to stop using the euro single currency reportedly won 6.7 per cent of the vote. In Greece, with a quarter of the votes counted, the leftist Euroskeptic Syriza party led with 26.49 per cent. The extreme right Golden Dawn party was third with 9.33 per cent. Doru Frantescu, policy director of VoteWatch Europe, an independent Brussels-based organization, said Europe's mainstream political parties won enough seats to still muster a majority on issues where they concur. "The problem comes when the left, the Socialists and EPP will not agree on issues," Frantescu said.

Fringe parties In the incoming European Parliament, he said, fringe parties will be able to exert more pressure on key topics, ranging from how liberal to make the internal European market for services or the proper mix of energy sources to which clauses should be scrapped in a proposed trade and investment agreement with the U.S. In the Netherlands, however, the right-wing Euroskeptic Party for Freedom surprisingly dropped a seat from five to four. Its outspoken leader, Geert Wilders, said in a statement his party looked forward to working with Le Pen in Europe, calling the National Front leader "the next French president." In Italy, early projections indicated that the main government party, the Democrats led by Premier Matteo Renzi, had beaten off a challenge by the anti-euro 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo. The centre-left Democrats were forecast to win 40 per cent, while Grillo's anti-establishment movement would garner 22.5 per cent. Despite the gains, unity may be hard to find in the fractured Euroskeptic camp. Le Pen has said she will work with Wilders' party but Britain's Farage has ruled out cooperating with both those parties, which have stridently anti-immigrant platforms.

"We won't work with right-wing populists," Alternative for Germany's leader Bernd Lucke also said after the vote, insisting his party was generally in favour of the EU despite its rejection of the common currency. Grillo in the past has said his movement wouldn't ally itself with Le Pen's party, claiming the 5-Stars have a different `'DNA." Voter turnout up Conservative caucus leader Joseph Daul put a brave face on the results Sunday. "One thing remains certain: EPP is the responsible political force in Europe, which keeps Europe open," he said. The European Parliament estimated turnout was narrowly up from the last election in 2009, at 43.1 per cent, reversing years of declining turnouts. Voters also put new parties in the European Parliament, with preliminary results showing that Sweden elected the first lawmaker from a feminist party and the Dutch returned one representative for the Party for the Animals. "You know that we have created history don't you? We inspire the world. This is the force of love!" the Feminist Initiative's main candidate, Soraya Post, proclaimed in front of cheering supporters in Stockholm.

Print Comments15 UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s group in the European Parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), was dissolved on Thursday (16 October) after Latvian MEP Iveta Gricule decided to leave the group. The EFDD, a resolutely Eurosceptic political group, has gained influence in Parliament after the May European elections, reflecting the strong performance of Eurosceptic parties. Since June, the group included 48 members, an increase of 17 on the previous Parliament. Political groups need to have at least 25 MEPs according to Parliament rules, but the EFDD collapsed because it had only six member states represented, when at least seven are needed. The Parliament’s spokesman and director for media, Jaume Duch, confirmed the news on Twitter. Latvian MEP Iveta Grigule left #EFDD group today. #EFDD no longer has members from at least 7 countries, so declared dissolved today.

#EP — Jaume Duch (@jduch) October 16, 2014 An EFDD statement said Mr Grigule signed her letter of resignation in the office of the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, this morning and told the Conference of Presidents that she had resigned, thus folding the group. The EFDD was made up by members from the UK (the UK Independence party), Czech Republic (Party of Free Citizens), France (Joëlle Bergeron, independent MEP), Lithuania (Latvian Farmers Union), Italy (Five Star Movement), Lithuania (Order and Justice), Sweden (the Sweden Democrats) and until today, Grigule, from the Latvian Farmers Union. The EFDD suggested that Parliament President Martin Schulz, a known Europhile, helped mastermind Grigule’s departure.

EFDD sources say Latvian MEP was ‘bribed’ by @MartinSchulz and @EPPGroup to leave @Nigel_Farage group — Bruno Waterfield (@BrunoBrussels) October 16, 2014 On Wednesday (15 October), the EFDD suffered a heavy defeat when it was pushed out of the running for top positions in the parliamentary delegations. >> Read: Farage again denied key European Parliament posts The delegations have no legislative role, but they support the Parliament’s interaction with third countries. Despite the size of the EFDD, Farage’s group was also blocked in July by pro-European groups from gaining a presidency in any of the parliamentary committees. The Greens, who often clash with Farage in Parliament over policy substance, backed the EFDD in the dispute, saying they were denied a chairmanship they deserved. >> Read: Greens back Farage in row over EU Parliament chairs In a statement, the EFDD accused pro-European federalist parties of “political blackmail”. UKIP leader Farage said, “It is clear that the European Parliament does not follow its long-term practice of sharing delegation and chairmanship positions in a fair manner according to the D’Hondt system.

“If we are correct in our understanding about the events, President Schulz would be more suited to being the president of a parliament in a banana republic. It would seem he has exceeded his role that should apply to a neutral chairman or president of a parliament. I believe this is an example of political bias on an extraordinary scale.” Positions Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder seemed delighted by the news. "It's not surprising that UKIP has lost friends and alienated people in the European Parliament," she said in an emailed statement. "Just like his new MP Nigel Farage will now have to shout from the back benches, that is if he actually bothers to turn up." Background Despite a rise in anti-European parties, political balances remained broadly unchanged in the European Parliament following the elections held between 22 and 25 May, with the centre-right and centre-left parties on track for a grand coalition. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) won 221 seats in the European parliament, followed by the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), with 189 seats (out of 751). In the last European election, the EPP won 265 seats and the S&D 184.

The Parliament was slightly larger at the time, counting a total of 766 seats. This is the fourth consecutive victory for the EPP since the 1999 election and another disappointment for the Socialists, who failed to reverse the balance of power in Parliament, despite the popular resentment over austerity. The centrist liberal groups could got 59 seats, Green parties 52 and the right-wing Conservatives and Reformist group, 46. The far-left obtained 45 seats, while the far-right Europe of Freedom and Democracy group got 38. Timeline 16 Oct. 2014: Remaining delegations elect their presidents and vice-presidents Further Reading

Question: Which group had most seats in the European Parliament after the 1989 election - the left, the centre or the right?
Answer: The Left